National News Roundup

Two prominent Congressional Democrats have joined forces to sponsor
a bill to boost mathematics, science, foreign-language, and technology
programs in the schools.

Representative Carl D. Perkins of Kentucky, the chairman of the
House Education and Labor Committee, and Senator Gary Hart of Colorado,
began hearings last week on their bill, which is supported by a wide
range of education and business groups.

The bill's title, "American defense education act," was chosen to
encourage the same kind of public support that existed for another bill
to strengthen such programs: the National Defense Education Act, which
the Congress passed in 1958.

"The launching of Sputnik in 1957 awakened the Congress and the
American people to the urgency of strengthening and encouraging
education," said Senator Hart. "It is imperative in 1982 to acknowledge
[that] the economic and national security of our nation depends on the
education and the training of our people."

The shift from federal to state evaluation of block-grant programs
may hinder efforts to assess how well the programs achieve their
objectives, according to a new report from the General Accounting
Office, the investigative arm of the Congress.

Based on a review of previous block grants, the report, Lessons
Learned From Past Block Grants: Implications for Congressional
Oversight, finds that the shift has opened a "gap in accountability"
for the programs. The gao investigators analyzed the requirements for
their effective evaluation.

Because the states have no common system of collecting information
about the programs, future evaluation efforts are likely to be
problematic, according to the report. The investigators also found that
there is "no conclusive pattern to the effects of the pre-1981 block
grants on the administrative costs of state and local grantees." Hence,
the report says, past experience does not necessarily bear out
Administration assertions that the new system will save money.

"The lack of any consistency in earlier findings of differences in
administrative costs between block grants and categorical programs
suggests that the cost savings that resulted from administering block
grants would not, by themselves, have offset budget cuts of greater
than 10 percent in programmatic activities," the report states.

In addition, the investigators found that past experience does not
bear out the claim that under block-grant programs, poor and
disadvantaged citizens would not be adequately served.

The report was prepared at the request of Charles B. Rangel,
Democrat of New York.

The research library of Columbia University's Teachers College,
which claims to have the largest collection of education books and
materials in the world, was dedicated last week as the Milbank Memorial
Library in honor of the family that supported its extensive renovation
and modernization.

The library, named for Dunlevy and Katharine Fowler Milbank and
their son, Thomas F. Milbank, former trustees of the college, contains
394,000 volumes, 1,811 current periodical titles, 1,994 linear feet of
manuscripts, and an extensive collection of microfiche, film, and other
''nonprint" materials, according to Isabel Mount, director of the
office of public relations.

The collection also includes such items as the archives of the New
York City school system.

To improve access to these materials, the library has been
technologically refurbished, and now has additional computer and other
sophisticated information systems, according to Ms. Mount.

The project, begun in 1979, cost $7.7 million and was funded by
contributions from The Dunlevy Milbank Foundation Inc., the J.M.
Foundation, and Thomas F. Milbank and others.

This week, more than 1,000 colleges and universities across the
country are expected to celebrate higher-education's contributions to
American society with a variety of academic and ceremonial events. The
governors of all 50 states and the mayors of 15 major cities have
issued proclamations in honor of the week.

The activities will highlight the second year of the "America's
Energy is Mindpower" campaign sponsored by the Council for the
Advancement and Support of Education, a Washington-based organization
representing colleges and universities.

In Washington, college and university officials will gather to honor
the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, president of the University of Notre
Dame. In a ceremony including Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell and
many of higher education's prominent national leaders, the outspoken
Father Hesburgh will receive the Thomas Jefferson Medal, established
last year by case to honor an American who provides national
educational leadership. The first recipient was John Gardner, former
Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and founder of Common
Cause.

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